JOE RAHON IS MAKING AN IMPACT AT BOSTON COLLEGE

The former Torrey Pines High point guard received basketball scholarship offers from San Diego State (where his brother James plays), USD, Oregon, Stanford, Cal, Saint Mary’s, USC and Washington State before finally signing with Boston College.

“I learned a lot about recruiting from my brother” (who played a season at Santa Clara before transferring to San Diego State),” Joe Rahon said. “I learned I needed to build a solid relationship with the recruiters and learn to know who I could trust.

“Of all my trips, I was most comfortable at BC. I trusted the coaches there the most. The BC coaches were honest from the start about what they expected from me. And I was honest with what I expected of myself.”

But did he really expect to start as a freshman at the point for an ACC school?

“Honestly, and without being cocky or arrogant, yes. And I expected to make an impact,” Rahon said.

And he has done exactly that.

Through the season’s first 14 games for the 8-6 Eagles, Rahon is averaging 11.8 points and 3.1 rebounds a game.

He leads the team in assists with 57 and is averaging a team-leading 35.8 minutes a game.

He has played his best in BC’s last two games, scoring a career-high 24 points, making all six of his 3-point attempts against Dartmouth. He came back with 18 points in Saturday’s nationally-televised ACC opener against No. 23-ranked North Carolina State, a tough 78-73 loss.

His play drew glowing comments from ESPN analyst Doris Burke.

“I had a long talk with my dad before I chose BC,” Rahon said. “He never told me where I should go, but one thing he said stuck with me.

“He said I had a chance to play in the ACC, the best basketball conference in the country. He said, ‘Do you want to be 40 and wonder if you were good enough to play in the ACC?’”

After playing four years at Torrey Pines under coach John Olive — who starred at Villanova, played for the San Diego Clippers in the NBA and coached at Loyola Marymount — and playing and traveling coast to coach every summer on top-notch AAU teams, one of which included UCLA star Shabazz Muhammad, Rahon felt he was “ready for anything the ACC could throw at me.”